Just before the 2026 World Cup, hundreds of bags containing human remains were discovered near the home of Chivas and one of the World Cup venues. The macabre findings have become a symbol of the forensic medicine crisis and the helplessness of families searching for their loved ones.

Graves beneath World Cup Arena

The discovery of human remains near Estadio Akron, one of the venues for the 2026 World Cup matches in Mexico, has sparked a wave of concerns about the deep crisis of violence and disappearances in Jalisco. Since 2022, search groups operating in Zapopan have been reporting the continuous discovery of human remains in various locations around the stadium, showing that this is not an isolated find, but an extensive zone of mass graves.

Instead of being associated solely with football, the Chivas stadium has become a reference point in reports about violence, organized crime, and state failure. For families of missing persons, the area around the facility is not a World Cup district, but a site of endless excavations, exhumations, and hopes that among the recovered remains, they will be able to identify their loved ones.

Hundreds of bags and active graves

According to the group Guerreros Buscadores de Jalisco, led by José Raúl Servín García, at least 456 bags containing human remains have been found in the area around Estadio Akron so far. The most recent discoveries were recorded in September 2025 during excavation work carried out by families of missing persons in the presence of authorities, showing that these are still active search sites, not long-closed cases.

The bags contained whole bodies, fragments, and skeletons, belonging both to people who died recently and to victims from 2018, 2020, or 2022. The macabre discoveries are not limited to a single plot in Zapopan. In the pantheon near the Chivas stadium, about 130 bodies were found, and in the Nextipac and Plan de la Noria areas between 2018 and 2022, a total of 89 bags with human remains were discovered. In Arroyo Hondo, also located in Zapopan, 48 bags were recorded during the same period. According to social organizations, all these sites are still active graves where searches continue.

State of missing

Jalisco is one of the Mexican states with the highest number of missing persons. According to data from the National Registry of Missing or Unlocated Persons (RNPDNO), it ranks second in the country, with the number of registered missing persons standing at 14,095. Behind this number are specific stories of people who left home and never returned.

The leader of Guerreros Buscadores de Jalisco, José Raúl Servín García, emphasizes that state and federal authorities are trying to hide the scale of the crisis related to disappearances. He points out that the government is more interested in the economy and image than in citizens, and even removes informational flyers from collectives so that visitors to the stadium area do not notice the severity of the problem.

© Grzegorz Kaliciak

"It's a shame the World Cup will be held here"

Servín, who is searching for his son who disappeared in Tlajomulco de Zúñiga, has become one of the most recognizable voices of families of the missing. In the media, he speaks openly about how the discoveries near Estadio Akron reveal the scale of violence in the region. His words it's a shame the World Cup will be held here, and there is so much evil here have become a symbolic commentary on the situation in which the world is preparing for a football celebration, not seeing what is happening a dozen kilometers away.

According to Servín and other activists, the announcements by authorities that excavation work is coming to an end are inconsistent with reality. In their view, the goal is to speed everything up so that before the World Cup everything looks normal, rather than a real solution to the crisis of disappearances and identification of remains.

World Cup at Estadio Akron

Despite the macabre discoveries in its vicinity, El Templo Mayor remains an official 2026 World Cup venue. A total of four tournament matches will be held there: match number 2 on Thursday, June 11, 2026, match 28 (Mexico's second match in the group stage) on Thursday, June 18, match 48 on Tuesday, June 23, and match 66 on Friday, June 26. The state of Jalisco will also host one of the playoff series in March 2026, in which Jamaica, New Caledonia, Bolivia, Suriname, and Iraq will compete for a place in the World Cup.

© Grzegorz Kaliciak